The Why Behind Our Actions of Resilience
I once rode in a car with a stranger for an hour and a half and it changed my perspective on life as I knew it. We were in Mendocino on the coast of Northern California and it was a full moon. I remember sitting in the passenger seat chatting with this stranger and feeling so comfortable going into the depths of our psyches together. Somehow, within the first twenty minutes, we were talking about the meaning of life and the inevitability of systemic collapse.
This person said something to me that night in the car that I’ll never forget and it has really impacted the way I look at things. We were talking about climate collapse and the detriment of humans inhabiting this magical planet called Earth. They said they had heard a story from a local Native American tribe they were working with that revolved around this idea that, “humans are really good at doing one thing, in particular, and that is spreading diversity.” They were referring to biodiversity and plants and talked about how because humans travel so far and colonize so efficiently, they bring about bio-diversity by default. However, it seems we have been surpassed by our doings. The biodiversity we have caused now looks like invasive species and bugs we choose to kill with poisons. They also told me that, “humans were not ever meant to save the world, in theory, they were created to destroy it because that too is part of the cycles of this planet.” Greater civilizations have both risen and fallen. This concept has stayed with me, now 7 years later.
It seems so embedded into our psyches that when we hear that we are destroying the planet, we feel almost, existentially challenged, namely because it affects one of our most assumed biological duties, to reproduce. Suddenly having children doesn’t make as much sense now, as it did in the ’50s. But also, if we are all apathetic to the concept of destroying the planet that keeps us alive, this too does not feel appropriate…regardless of whether one supports reproduction. As with most things, it seems there is a balance to this point of view. In this case, that balance is quite precarious. On one end, we must acknowledge our species and how it has leaned into industrialization and power. On the other side, we have to take action to support that which we believe in, after all, it is how we get up in the morning and also how we bring love and light to the tables we choose to sit at. Imagine a voice in the sky or in the flower saying “you have destroyed the world you need to survive as a species, but in essence, we knew you would do this and set you up to succeed at it.”
It can be seen as a tragedy because indeed we did not just ruin it for our own species; the glorious elephants and magnificent trees are taking a hit from our fossil fuels and ignorance just as hard. “Keep zooming out,” says the voice from the flowers and sky. It seems we must actually let go of our ego to see what is happening here from a greater view. We must let go of everything we know, or thought we knew to be true. And then what? What if we actualize the idea that our species was meant to collapse and bring down a bunch of other innocent species with it? Does this make waking up and not worrying about sustainable choices or what community of people are still being denied basic human rights, easier?
Well, I believe it means just the opposite. It means rewiring your reasoning behind these decisions. Don’t be sustainable to save the planet, the planet will recover, only your species won’t. If not, there are plenty of other galaxies in space, surely there are a few other magical planets like Earth. Don’t take action to stand up to injustice because you think it’s the right thing to do, do it because there is an inescapable feeling inside of you that says, “even if the entire world would blow up tomorrow, I would stand up against injustice today.”
It’s got to be a feeling, not an ideology, as it is the only sustainable energy to engage with. It is also way more demanding to search for your own truth than to follow anothers’. We are all more effective when acting from our authentic selves then that of how we think we ought to be. It is so easy in this day of constant communication and social media, and very little authentic social engagement, to be swayed from your truth into the “story” of it all.
If they wanted to control the people, all they had to do was curate the story the people were being told.
I began by telling the story of a person who changed my life by sharing with me a story of their own. I want to end with the idea, that we all are being beckoned to discover our reason and to embed it into everything we say, think, and do. It is all too easy to get lost in the stories being shoved down our throats everywhere we look, but a great tool to sharpen is the ability to decipher what is a story of personal allegory and truth and what is rhetoric and propaganda. Listen to those that ought to be heard and most importantly, get still and quiet enough to hear your own thoughts. Remember that most of what you know, you have been taught to think.
The world will continue to evolve and that may involve some destruction that may also include our species. Let us acknowledge that we are all human and sharing a planet that is alive and floating through space. Let us continue to fight for what we believe in and raise the voices of those that deserve to be heard. Let us nurture our bodies and our rivers alike. Let us take every step to save the world and our species, knowing full well, we may not stand a chance.
Do it for each other, and do it because you have nothing to lose.
